


Shower Serenade

by Beckendorf



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Cap is 21st century trendy, Cute, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Getting Together, Humour, M/M, Romance, Singing in the Shower, but we knew that anyway, clint is a shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 21:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4681289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckendorf/pseuds/Beckendorf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the tumblr prompt: 'the walls are really thing so i hear you sing every morning in the shower at 6:30 and you're actually really good and I stand next to the wall and sing the next lyrics to see what would happen'. </p><p>In which Tony's life dramatically changes when Captain America starts singing in the shower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shower Serenade

_“Yeah, big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?”_

_“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”_

_“I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”_

_“I think I would just cut the wire.”_

_“Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.”_

_“ A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle-“ They stared each other down after the blows had been dealt, nostrils flaring, egos competing to hold ground. In that moment it was explicitly obvious; they may cooperate as teammates, but they were never going to be friends._

“And this is the communal lounge where we’ll probably be forced to spend most of our time team bonding and all that.“ Tony felt like an estate agent, showing prospective buyers a new house. Except he wasn’t trying to convince anyone; the person he was showing around literally did not get a choice in staying here or not. Not that this was a bad thing. Most people would kill to live in a place like this. He spread his arms out, gesturing to the luxurious space around him. Hand designed and tailored by yours truly.

Steve nodded, trying for a smile but his face explicitly betrayed him. He’s the last to move in; mostly because he had been out looking for his sort-of-dead-sort-of-alive best friend. After months of futile search, he caved. And of course, since no one else was really around Tony decided to give the man a tour himself since Coulson (who was the director of shield how crazy was that?) had an intimidating Skype call/pep talk with him about “getting along”.

So far, it’d been pretty successful. But then again, they’d both matured. Steve wasn’t the annoyed firecracker ready to start a fight every 5 seconds that he used to be and Tony had humbled (sort of) enough to realise his mistakes. At least enough to try and get along with his team members.  And there was the whole….emotional roller-coaster holy shit we’ve been severely lied to by our handlers part/finding out your dead best friend is not dead/breaking up with the girlfriend you changed so much for part.

They’d moved over to Steve’s floor now-the only floor not entirely designed by the inhabitant  since he’d taken so long to actually move in. So Tony stepped in. It was now covered in vintage style wallpaper with matching furniture, earthy tones and moody neutrals. He’d spent ages looking at 40s furniture, making little upgrades so Steve wouldn’t be too sad when he first came to stay. He thought about things like that. There was still a giant American flag over the couch, but it was tasteful rather than flat out patriotism.

“Wasn’t sure what you liked and the interior decorators gave me a cut-off date so, uh, I had to improvise. But we can always call the designers and chang-“

“It’s great.” Steve said, and he seemed to genuinely mean it. “I love it. Better than my SHIELD one.” Steve finished with a smile, dumping his bag on the couch. “Thanks Tony.” He gave the genius a thumbs up and a look of pure content. For a moment, it seemed tense, like a biting comment sure to trigger a fight trying to break through. But then there was just silence, followed by the rustle of the couch as Steve settled in.

Tony nodded “I’ll leave you to it.” He said, turning to go.  “Oh and if you need anything just give me a shout-I’m down under.” He said, finishing with a wink. Probably a little bit daring but, he was Tony Stark. Couldn’t change everything.

In retrospect, that went so much better than expected. He couldn’t wait to tell Coulson. He deserved a fucking gold star. Because even though he and Steve weren’t fighting, it was still pretty obvious that they absolutely hated each other.

\--

_“And I’m never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm-“_

Tony jerked awake, his face dangerously close to a rather sharp piece of metal. He groaned loudly, thrusting his head back into the couch. Must’ve fallen asleep in the workshop. Again. He shook his head-there was a faint sound of music coming from the corner of his room. He didn’t remember setting an alarm. Well, then again, he rarely remembered most things these days.

“Should’ve known better than to cheat a friend, wasted chance that I’d been given-“

“Jarvis switch the alarm off.” He mumbled, thought it really came out more like “javhs sch alm of” but the AI was sure to know.

“Sir there is no such alarm ringing.” Tony screwed his eyes shut. “was zat noise…” He said in response, putting his head in his arms.

“I think you may be referring to Captain Rogers’s singing, sir. He is currently in the shower.”

Tony grinned, “Nice one Jarvis.” Yeah right, like Captain America sings in the shower.

No. Wait.

Captain America sings in the shower. What a dork.

\--

“So Steve, how’s that catching up going?” They were sitting opposite each other in the breakfast bar and god since when did Tony eat breakfast? Wait, who put the fry up in front of him?

“Pretty well, I have this little notebook with stuff to go through.” Steve replied, literally destroying his plate of food. Tony just continued to stare at his own, trying to figure out how exactly anyone got the stuff to put this together.

Steve frowned. “Eat up Tony; even geniuses gotta keep up their strength.” He said, shoving some bacon onto Tony’s plate. Ah, that would explain a lot.

“I don’t really eat break-“

“Yknow one of the main reasons I managed to take down HYDRA that day was because Sam cooked me a good breakfast. Don’t doubt its benefits.” Steve said, raising his eyebrow and simultaneously making Tony feel bad for refusing.

“Uh, sure thing Cap.” He said, digging in.

“I’m working my way through the eras. I’m on the 80s now.” Steve continued, helping himself to thirds.

And don’t I know it Tony thought. “Uh good, yeah, um, keep up the good work Cap.” He said, unsure of what he had wanted to achieve from this conversation in the first place.

They ate in silence for a little while with Steve reading the newspaper and occasionally frowning at something, Tony staring at Steve and occasionally frowning because they weren’t fighting? They were actually being civil?

He began to tuck into his breakfast, savouring the taste. When was the last time he’d eaten a home cooked breakfast? Probably not since he was about six.

This was beyond weird. Beyond what he expected or even wanted.

But, he had to admit. It was nice. Usually Tony didn’t care about this kind of stuff-he got along with someone? Cool. He didn’t? Cool. But this was captain America-the guy Tony had wanted to be friends with ever since he was a teenager. And the fact that now, miraculously (and definitely with the kiss ass blessing of Nick Fury) he and Steve were possibly starting a beautiful friendship.

\--

_“Don't, don't you want me ?You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me. It's much too late to find when you think you've changed your mind. You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry. Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me, oh? Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me, oh?”_

Tony tumbled off the couch in a panic. “Jarvis-we really gotta do something about the thickness of these walls.” He couldn’t keep being woken up by the human alarm every goddamn morning.

“Perhaps it would be less of a nuisance if you went to sleep at a more appropriate time, sir.”

Tony shook his head, silently cursing the ceiling before hauling himself off to bed. As his head hit the pillows, he found himself humming along to Human League.

\--

They were at breakfast one day and Tony was surprised he could still take Steve seriously after last night’s free one man ABBA concert. Tony was seriously considering saying something like “it’s disturbing the silent nature of the tower” or some shit like that, but he decided it could wait.

Steve was piling plates up with glorious breakfast food, which had now become a surprisingly integral part of Tony’s life. He couldn’t wait to tell Pepper how he’d started to actually breakfast.

Today’s delicacy looked like homemade Danish Pastries (who even had the time?) amongst eggs Benedict and dinosaur shaped toast.

“I’ve been going through one of the old cookbooks you have lying around.” Steve said, noticing Tony’s expression. “It’s good I swear.”

“Oh I don’t doubt it.” He replied, digging in. They settled into the comfortable silence they always seem to have, each one looking at their relative device. It was rare for anyone else to be up around this time, so it was usually just the two of them enjoying the early sunrise.

“Hey Tony.”

“Yeah Cap?”

“Could you show me around? Y’know, the city. Didn’t get a chance to really see for myself. You’d know it better than me.”

“Um.” Tony scanned his face, looking for the telltale signs. He seemed too genuine to be true. His findings came back empty, and so he decided it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to trust him after all. “Sure Cap, name the time and place. I’ll be there.”

Steve’s smile was so bright it was probably accompanied by an entire orchestra of angels. Tony swallowed his food, trying to suppress the feeling of butterflies in his stomach.

It didn’t change anything. They still weren’t-couldn’t be friends.

\--

As Avengers team life started to…well, become a thing, Tony found himself socialising a lot more. Which was how he ended up taking Steve out to the city not only once, but 5 times. He was sure it was going to be a drag, introducing Steve to this and pointing out that but he was pleasantly shocked.

Steve had them take selfies everywhere, adding them to his snapchat story (what even??), tweeting random pictures of Tony with smart ass captions. They’d tried different foods, got drenched in milkshakes and in fact it was Tony stopping Steve from doing crazy shit.

A single day doesn’t go by where he doesn’t wonder how this became his life.

In addition to this, he’d found a proper sleeping pattern which left him with a lot more energy and a lot less free time. Boy, wasn’t that a confession to make? he had an actual sleeping pattern. One that wasn't completely fucked up! He actually woke up in his own bed every morning. It was a miracle. For starters, Jarvis was certainly being nicer to him too.

 

He’d also started going to sleep voluntarily at 10:30 pm everyday (because that was when Steve took his post-night workout showers) and ended up with him waking at around 6 (when Steve took his post morning workout shower). The timings were purely coincidental though.

Tony liked-no, was forced to listen each day to the new tracks Steve had to offer. Some days it was really old stuff from his own time; on others, it could be as modern as last week’s hit single.

He’d been meaning to tell Steve to stop, but after their little trip to the city, he’d found it harder and harder to find faults in Steve.

And his rendition of Anaconda made a very strong case: _“My Hulk don’t want none unless you can smash hun.”_ In other words, he was actually starting to like Steve.

Now here was the tricky part. He wouldn’t really have made such a big deal about a teammate singing in the shower-everyone did it, it was just a thing that sort of happened right?

But the fact that it was Captain America, with his almost godly persona and general perfection made Tony suddenly realise that a friendship with Steve…wasn’t too out of bounds. It reminded him that no matter how much Howard placed him on a pedestal of ethereality, he was still really just a regular guy. Possibly the most regular guy on the team really. So yeah, he could totally become friends with Captain America.

And it wasn’t just through his creepy shower listening-they’d started to hang out a lot more too. In fact, Steve actually turned up at his workshop and sat with him for 6 straight hours going through a stack of paper work.

Tony didn’t think much of it. Not of the way Steve would sometimes give him a small shy smile, or the way he lazy pulled at his thumb with his teeth when deep in thought. Nope, Tony barely noticed him there.

But facts are still facts, and although Tony could kid himself all he wanted, nothing could stop the harsh blade of realisation when it finally hit.

_“Cause the players gonna play play play play play and the haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate hate but im just gonna shake shake shake shake shake-shake it off shake it of-SHIT FUCK OW!”_

Tony was up in a flash. There’d been a gigantic crashing sound coming from the room above and for a moment Tony had panicked, thinking he was in a nightmare.

He calmed himself, realising that he was in his bedroom, that he was safe and in the Avengers tower. And that the giant crashing sound was Steve falling in the shower.

Tony could see him now, Steve trying to dance to the song (hard to resists-he’s tried) whilst soaping himself up, rinsing his golden hair with one hand whilst using the bar as a microphone, with that little smile he uses secretly when he’s really happy-like that one time he and Tony had gone to an iMAX theatre. His eyes are probably closed too and-

Shit.

Shit.

He was so screwed.

\--

“Wait Tony slow down Captain America did what?” Rhodey pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to make sense of Tony’s babble through the phone.

“He existed.”

“That’s not a crime Tony.” He replied, looking over one of the new gun models they’d been promised.

“No no you don’t understand, he just waltzed into the tower and like started singing and existing and cooking me breakfast-“

“Yeah I’m not seeing the bad side. If this is just another bitch session can it please wait? I’m kinda busy.” Rhodey said, inserting as much boredom as he could into his voice.

There was silence on the other end, before Tony finally spoke-far quieter this time. “I think I’m in love with him.”

Rhodey’s hand slipped and ending up shooting a hole in the roof. He cursed, quickly shoving the gun down. “You think you’re what?”

“I’m not saying it again!”

“Tony, you realise this is the guy who made fun of you. Who said you weren’t a hero.”

“Yes what’s your point?”

“…Well, if you’re sure.”

“Rhodey I don’t know what to do!”

“And you’re asking me?”

“You’re the normalest person I know.” Well now, that definitely was true.

He sighed. “I don’t know; sing back to him or something? Finish his song line?”

There was silence as Tony thought it through, finally deciding this was a good idea. Clearly Jarvis did as well as suddenly various song lyrics appeared around his workshop. “Rhodey, my friend, you are a  genius. Not like me but pretty close.”

“Yeah yeah give me a decent gun next time I fly over alright?”

“You got it buddy.” Tony put the phone down, feeling totally pumped. He was gonna do this, he was going to ask Steve out.

Unfortunately, like most things in life, that’s when anxiety hits. Soon Tony’s brain was flooded with doubt. Was Steve even gay? Did he like Tony back that way? It had all been pretty fast.  But what if Steve freaked out and never spoke to him again? And what if Tony didn’t know the song?

The answer to his questions came one particularly bad night, after he’d had a series of anxiety attacks, told Steve to leave him alone and finally hit the alcohol cabinet. He’d managed to pull an all-nighter-barely-and was now sprawled out on his couch, too tired to make the short distance to his bed.

He was just starting to dose off, when up from the heavens, a voice came down:

_“We're soaring....flying....there's not a star in heaven that we can't reach.."_

Tony smiled, before laughing loudly. A High School Musical song? Tony shook his head, aiming to go to sleep when he suddenly remembered the whole reason he was in this miss in the first place.  This-this was his chance to sing back! This was the shot he’d been waiting for. He only had to reach out and-and-remember what the lyrics were.

“Sir, I believe these will be of use to you.”  A holographic screen appeared in front of him, displaying the lyrics. Steve had already gone to the duet’s chorus, but Tony was ready to jump in.

“Oh we’re breaking free-“

Here he goes. “We’re soaring!”

There was a slight pause and Tony was sure he’d botched the whole thing up…until:

“Flying…”

“There’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach” Tony joined in on the second line as they continued the song together; Steve from his Shower and Tony from his couch.

“If we’re trying….” This was Steve.

“Then we’re breaking free…” Tony finished, smiling at the ceiling like a complete dork.

The sound of water cut out and Tony wasn’t really sure what to do next. In all honesty, since he hadn’t even anticipated going this far, he hadn’t thought to at least plan the next move.

There was silence now as Tony’s initial euphoria began to fade off, replaced with a bottom-less pit of anxiety.

He was just contemplating a repulser to the face, when;

“Sir Captain Rogers is approaching.”  Tony was out at the speed of light. This was definitely the fastest he’d ever  gotten out of bed. There he was, the golden american beauty himself. The snarky idiot who’d somehow managed to become Tony’s best friend and crush.

Steve looked irritated. Well, it wasn’t like Tony had just alerted the man to the fact that he’d been listening in on Steve’s intimate shower time every day for the past few months.

He knew what needed to happen, and opened his mouth to start the ramble of apologies. “Listen Steve I’m so sorry I-“

“High School Musical? Really Tony? I’ve been singing Taylor Swift non stop and all it took was a high school musical song to get back?”

“…what….”

Steve shook his head. “Clint told me the walls were pretty thin, and since taking you out on city dates wasn’t working i figured my shower singing might.”

“…Again, what?”

“HE LIKES YOU TOO DUMBASS.” came the voice from the vent. Clint.

“Yeah i also sorta overheard your conversation with Rhodey. Sorry Tony, walls are pretty thin. But you already know that.”

“Wait so let me get this straight, you’ve been singing ridiculous pop songs for the last few months and asking me to take you to the city in order to…get me to go out with you?”

“FUCKING FINALLY” Nice to know Clint was still there.

Steve rolled his eyes. “And here I thought you were meant to be a genius. Could definitely make a career out of singing though.”

Tony took a minute to regain his composure because wow, if that wasn’t simultaneously the most awkward and weird 10 minutes of his life. “Well take me to bed and i’ll show you all the sounds i can make.” He replied, winking.

Steve returned the grin, following Tony into the bedroom as Clint made fake gagging noises in the vent.

Oh yes, getting a sleeping pattern was so worth it. But for what it was worth, he was pretty sure he wasn’t doing any sleeping tonight.

 


End file.
